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From Fritz Lang's Metropolis ( You will recall the M hands from the Celebritarian Era MM.com that was a direct reference )

From Fritz Lang's Metropolis...

Maria, after being kidnapped by Rotwang, strapped to an operation table in the laboratory in a coma-like trance as the precursor to her forced transformation of The Machine Maria, The Whore of Babylon/

To S.D.'s delight, (I hope ;) I have every intention of composing a well- constructed essay on the similarities to the parable in Metropolis compared to Manson's Triptych

I was trolling through my emails not too long ago and found all of my thread notifications from S.D.'s thread on The Heirophant. Unfortunately I don't have his opening post, and I'm sure that more than a few posts are missing. However, enjoy...

Originally posted by Saklas

Originally posted by Simple Simonist

Originally posted by Azoth ([god]speed)

My interpretation of this photo seems to convey that he is wrapping himself in leather as a child's security blanket, Covering his chest, perhaps symbolizing that he feels he must protect his heart, With a look of determination staring into the eyes of those who are awaiting him off frame as he knows he must face them. I get an image in my head of this as a metaphor for how he feels before he walks on stage,through the symbolism involved. As he bares his heart and soul for all to see, which must be the most vulnerable point in any artists life regardless of any form of 'fame', the soul remains with them and as mentioned...

Originally posted by S.D.

Originally posted by 531331
This came to mind when I saw the gun/cowboy picture from the MA-era.

Originally posted by S.D.
I'll place this here, as I've little desire to create an entire discussion for it. Whilst watching Dr. Strangelove again recently, I had forgotten entirely about the closing scenes during which a nuclear explosion is caused. It is done using one of two nuclear bombs, which are seen together before the dispatch:-
Now, several things (many of which I'm sure are already obvious from the image supplied) came to mind when re-watching this sequence in relation to lyrics and themes explored on Holy Wood. We have a crossover of sorts in the two sets of words below:- "Dear John and all the King's mencan't put your head together again" "We write our prayers on a little bomb,kiss it on the face and send it to god" Not only that, but note that as a "safety" measure, both bombs have written on them the phrase "Handle With Care", which as well as being a prime example of Dr. Strangelove's inherent satire, also evokes the following:- "Her heart's a bloodstained egg,we didn't handle with care" I have theorised those lines in unrelated terms elsewhere, so I'm not stating an overt reference, just a pleasant similarity. I won't elaborate on the themes of Dr. Strangelove, for even with its futilist humour you should view it independently if you haven't before. I'll spoil very little by saying that a film which accidentally referenced the death of President Kennedy in its original format, and essentially lampoons the early 1960s climate of the Cold War (a period somewhat overlooked following the President's death) was surely an underlying influence for Marilyn Manson on some level. Not to mention that it is of course, a Stanley Kubrick project starring Peter Sellers, as was his film of Lolita. Not a visual comparison with one of Manson's own aesthetics, but a visual to be compared nonetheless.

Originally posted by Oedepus

Do I have to do everything for you?

Has he come to test me?

Originally posted by Azoth ([god]speed)
Granted, this doesn't necessarily involve a direct visualization of Manson's art, and its nothing truly groundbreaking, with that being said, I was reading into The Black Death and the impact it had on Art and literature, I came across this image which reminded me of the lyrics 'We're a death marching band'
*"The Dance of Death"*by Hans Holbein the Younger"

Originally posted by S.D.
In relation to your image *Azoth*, one could also associate the lyric from (s)AINT: "I'm a bonetop, a Death's Head, on a mopstick". Consider further that the Dance of Death as pictured is a variation of the Danse Macabre, the Medieval practice of reverencing death as a way of rationalising life. In the context of Manson's work, I believe the use of these phrases is another aspect of Celebritarianism, the original concept of the Danse Macabre was that all peoples are united in death, as it makes no distinctions between rich or poor, young or old, class or creed. Michael Wolgemut's painting presents the dance as featuring an Emperor, a Maiden, a King and an Infant (the skull of which composes the Totenkopf):-
"If you're not dancing, then you're dead"

Originally posted by simple simonist

Originally posted by S.D.
Hell Outro:-

Also, I once pointed out the correlation of the window frames in both Antichrist Superstar and EAT ME, DRINK ME. As was suggested about the latter album, one can identify the Celebritarian Cross:-

Originally posted by Saklas

Originally posted by simple simonist
Jessica Lange as Tamora, Queen of the Goths (the Iron Age tribe of Barbarians, not Manson 'fans') in "Titus" (1999), Julie Taymor's (director, also, of "Across the Universe") first film, an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus"--his most violent (and according to scholars, worst) play. Tamora, long after being captured by Titus Andronicus, is seeking revenge on him for killing her son; she appears in this garb, dressed as an allegorical Revenge, hoping to drive him to madness.
Composite image of Manson, his face superimposed over a Renaissance emblem of spinning daggers (such as those swords which spin around Eden, protecting the Garden) alongside Third Reich symbolism, which appeared on marilynmanson.com during the Celebritarian exploration.

Originally posted by simple simonist
The video for The Nobodies was inspired by Julie Taymor's Titus (1999), allusions to which Manson made more recently during the Celebritarian exploration as I noted above. Manson, part of, or standing on, a tree stump in that scene of the music video wherein the band is silent, paints Manson and Twiggy--and veritably, the whole band--as Lavinia or Lavinias, the tragic heroine of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's most violent play. Twiggy and Manson, and possibly the entire band, depending on how good one's eye is, have twigs for hands, just as in Taymor's 1999 cinematic adaptation, Lavinia has her tongue ripped out, and her hands severed so that she might not identify those who had raped her. In the film, Lavinia is found standing on a tree stump, her own stumps (which Shakespeare actually called them) spewing forth bundles of twigs, her mouth bleeding as she tries to scream for help.
Promoting Holy Wood, Manson cited Shakespeare as an inspiration. He was also familiar with Taymor's infamous yet stunning adaptation of Shakespeare's most sadistic play. This is further evinced by the treatment of the video for The Nobodies which demands that the administrators of an orphanage sell their captives--children--to Manson, a powerful figure in the vicinity of the institution. The figure Manson plays then goes on to liberate the children through their purchase, and, in a move ripped directly from Titus, ensnares the former captors of the children (demonstrated by the vines tangling around the captors' hands as they collect Manson's money), and proceeds to bake them into a pie, he and the children eating it, and therefore, DEVOURing their former oppressors.
In Titus Andronicus, the eponymous star of the drama bakes the two remaining sons of Tamora, Queen of the Goths mentioned in my previous post, into two meat pies, which he serves to Tamora and her husband, Saturninus, the Emperor at his own dinner table. This vengeful slaying and devouring of an enemy evokes imagery of South Sea cannibals, transubstantiation and Christ Mythology, as well as the theme of DEVOURING and consuming which plagues EAT ME, DRINK ME, and will be addressed again on The High End of Low, not only in the song Devour.
That Titus was released just prior to Holy Wood gives it plausible entry into Manson's vast canon of inspiration; that it aids in demonstrating how much more Shakespeare can be than rock music, and that we teach the superiority of Shakespeare to our own children; and, that the theme of consumption was born in Manson's own opus long before EAT ME, DRINK ME, beg that this be interpreted as an important observation. "Celebritarian" is not the only sort of ideal originating in Holy Wood, but so too is EAT ME, DRINK ME's very pathos.

Jeez, that's an exact copy of the M's. It seems she has no shame in what she takes as 'inspiration' from others sometimes. Didnt she also use the 'TV Crucifix' a couple years ago?
Thanks for the information too Simonist. The Nobodies video is one I could watch over and over. Seems very fitting that Manson turned it round so the children are the ones devouring the adults too.

Triz Darmon
pic from graphic novel "Joker" and Manson 2008 and 2007 yearlooks like artist was inspired by manson photos then he start to draw this

In Fritz Lang's M, Peter Lorre plays Hans Beckert, a serial killer and pedophile who kidnaps children, thus raping them of their innocence. Beckert sells balloons to small children before murdering them, and in the scene following the purchase of the balloon, We see a balloon ensnared in the telephone lines, floating away much in the same manner Manson does in Coma Black

M and Fritz Lang's work are very definite influences on Manson's output, but I'm not sure the balloons in the film are relative to the ones used on The High End Of Low tour, the source for those is a little more basic I think.
Black balloons traditionally symbolise death, and Manson was probably using them in the same context as he did in the Man That You Fear video, as demonstrated below:-

In the video, the balloons are left outside Manson's trailer. Norsefire and I were discussing this and came to the conlusion it's a harbinger, Manson has been marked for death and ostracised from the "community", which is basically what Man That You Fear is about.

Also, as images two and three show, the little girl holds a bunch of black balloons as the procession walks through the Desert, or "Death Valley", if you will. Manson has identified with the persona of a little girl or a child on numerous occasions, from Portrait Of An American Family (during Get Your Gunn - "Want me to save the world, I'm just a little girl") right through to EAT ME, DRINK ME (Manson as 'The Star - "feeling like a child" etc.), so perhaps a more prudent reading would be that his release of the black balloons on stage is him relinquishing this part of his personality, releasing the burden in isolation:-

Marilyn Manson as the Emperor. The Emperor is connected to Key 13, Death, through its cross sum (the sum of the digits). "Dear God, your sky is as blue as a gunshot wound. Dear God, if you were alive, you know we'd kill you." On an additional note, coincidentally, 13 is the number of students that were killed in the Columbine massacre.

The Second picture is taken from the film "Begotten". The scene is entitled "God killing himself." The director of the movie itself E. Elias Merhige also helped to direct the video for Cryptorchid. It depicts "God" disemboweling himself, when Mother Earth impregnates herself with his semen and travels to a desolate, baron region and leaves her children to their own methods of survival in her absense.

"Dress me up and take me here. Dress me up and make me your dying God."